feeding left over rice?

[donrae]

I have heard this about uncooked rice. Some have even not used rice at weddings fearing harming the birds. All I know is birds (chicken included) will absolutely ravish a rice field at harvest time and they have no problems.

Exactly. the whole birds eating rice and dying thing is an urban legend, and a darn persistent one! I agree with the above, no rice field is surrounded by hundreds of bird corpses, so I'm thinking it's okay. Plus, been there done that, no dead birds.

 

[gander007]

Mine have eaten left over cooked rice with no problems. I believe it's uncooked rice that could cause issues.

I have always heard that cooked rice is fine because it has already absorbed water. The problem is with uncooked because they eat it and it begins to soak up liquid from the stomach and it swells too much.

My chicks are 3 and a half weeks old.
Every day I give them a nice snack, cooked rice, hard boiled egg and yogurt.
They love it.

I have some month old chicks and some day old cooked rice ........... can I feed it to them?

Cooked Rice my flock love it and I have been feeding it to them for over 40 years and never had any filing any complaints yet ...



In all of these photos the poultry are eating rice ...





So all ages like it but it is not a primary feed ..





And it is a great way to get them all together

And they will all mix for this moment ...





Do you see any complainers

Even my EE's love it












gander007

 

[Mister B]

My chickens love cooked rice. But, more than that, they love mashed potatoes. If I throw out some mashed potatoes with other scraps, they will eat the potatoes first. Anybody else give mashed potatoes to the chickens?

 

[gander007]

My chickens love cooked rice. But, more than that, they love mashed potatoes. If I throw out some mashed potatoes with other scraps, they will eat the potatoes first. Anybody else give mashed potatoes to the chickens?

My rule if it comes of the table and it is a left over then the chickens can eat it so yes many a times and ribs and pick any bone's clean even vegetables sometimes but all potato's need to be cooked ....

 

[Mister B]

Yes, I guess I should have said that. Cook potatoes for chickens. They love cornbread too. and pizza. I give them anything that's left over from what we eat and can't be a leftover. I know people think of pigs as little garbage disposals, but chickens work just as well. everything is cooked, though, except salad stuff sometimes.

 

[Spangled]

Quote:
Exactly.

All my chickens would be absolutely dead if uncooked rice was bad for them. We had a couple of gunnysacks of uncooked white rice that I slowly fed them over a month or two. Why slowly? Because white rice has a whole lot less nutritional qualities than other grains like wheat, barley, oats, etc., that they also eat uncooked and whole. I don't want them filling up all day long on low-protein, high-energy rice and corn and not eating regular 18% protein balanced feed. So I gave them some rice each day as scratch ... although, on really cold days, I warmed it up for them in a little water with veggie scraps.

I've got two books on chicken nutrition ... okay, "poultry nutrition" ... and uncooked rice is listed in both.

I think rice is more expensive than barley, oats, wheat and that's why it's not usually fed to chickens in most parts of the US.

(no, I don't know how to spell gunnysack)

 

[Blooie]

Exactly.

All my chickens would be absolutely dead if uncooked rice was bad for them. We had a couple of gunnysacks of uncooked white rice that I slowly fed them over a month or two. Why slowly? Because white rice has a whole lot less nutritional qualities than other grains like wheat, barley, oats, etc., that they also eat uncooked and whole. I don't want them filling up all day long on low-protein, high-energy rice and corn and not eating regular 18% protein balanced feed. So I gave them some rice each day as scratch ... although, on really cold days, I warmed it up for them in a little water with veggie scraps.

I've got two books on chicken nutrition ... okay, "poultry nutrition" ... and uncooked rice is listed in both.

I think rice is more expensive than barley, oats, wheat and that's why it's not usually fed to chickens in most parts of the US.

(no, I don't know how to spell gunnysack)

I wonder if the difference is between feeding them regular grain rice or that instant cooking kind that absorbs fluid so much more quickly...oh, probably just a stupid thought.

 

[Spangled]

I wonder if the difference is between feeding them regular grain rice or that instant cooking kind that absorbs fluid so much more quickly.

Okay ... reasonable question ... went and looked it up for you regarding instant rice (which has been precooked, then dried and packaged, like Minute Rice).

University of Kentucky biologist Jim Krupa performed studies using instant rice and whole-grain rice and found no issues or exploding birds.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/31421/does-wedding-rice-really-make-birds-explode
It was also discussed in Delaware's Mensa publication and others.

So it looks like even a day of instant rice (raw Minute Rice) fed with free-choice water, which our chickens are supposed to have anyway, is not going to damage my chickens, just my pocketbook and their energy/vitamin/protein intake.

 

[Blooie]

Okay ... reasonable question ... went and looked it up for you regarding instant rice (which has been precooked, then dried and packaged, like Minute Rice).

University of Kentucky biologist Jim Krupa performed studies using instant rice and whole-grain rice and found no issues or exploding birds.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/31421/does-wedding-rice-really-make-birds-explode
It was also discussed in Delaware's Mensa publication and others.

So it looks like even a day of instant rice (raw Minute Rice) fed with free-choice water, which our chickens are supposed to have anyway, is not going to damage my chickens, just my pocketbook and their energy/vitamin/protein intake.

Thanks for looking that up! I knew, having used both regular and quick rice, that there was a difference in cooking methods because of the way the Minute Rice absorbs all the water in 5 minutes. I was kinda just being silly with that question, but it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who thought of it if even scientists have looked into it. I still don't know where the "birds exploding" theory came from...I was thinking that if there was some kind of ill effect from quick rice at the most it would be a temporary digestion system overload, not an explosion of innards and feathers. People on here are so doggone knowledgeable, but what makes it even better is that if we ask a question, even if it seems silly, someone either knows the answer or knows how to get it. Amazing.

 

[jonalisa]

To be on the safe side, I am going to start throwing cooked rice at weddings.
;-)